CHRONICLES OF GEMCLOD
Late Spring 262: A Friend Lost
With half of the workforce either wounded or taking care of the wounded, the excavations had effectively stopped. The Entrance work stopped on level -3 and was far from finished, the stockade was only half done, we were still living aboveground, our only soldier was infected and we had no (edible) food. How lucky we were that we decided to settle in this swamp where nobody could find us!
Food was the first order of business. Enzer, who used to be a fisherdwarf once, went to catch some fish in the nearby brook, and Vox Nihili decided to look around the swamp for some of the many edible plants he knew.
That left me and Leperfish, once again not knowing what to do. The bedhouse was finished, the Entrance couldn't progress without the miners, and we were in no mood to explore for more local fauna.
“So what do you say, Leperfish? Checkers again?” I asked.
“Actually, I'd like to... er... be alone for a while,” he responded and left. This was odd but I thought he was just sad about the upcoming demise of CommaToes. Only later would I find out that something more sinister was going on with Leperfish!
We didn't improve the food situation at all. Enzer spent a few days watching the brook, only to rule out any possibility of edible life. “Unless you want to eat leeches or waterweed, there's nothing in the water”, she said.
Vox Nihili was no more successful – although there was a lot of undergrowth everywhere, lots of berries and colourful plants, he was sure none of them were edible. “In fact, they might be poisonous. Better don't touch anything that grew out of that stinky mess,” he added.
One day I saw a group of large four-legged animals with tall horns. Leperfish wasn't around (again!) so I wen to ask our animal expert Star Guarded who was already allowed out of bed. “Looks like a perfectly ordinary mountain goat,” he said.
“Are you sure?” asked Vox Nihili. “Since when do mountain goats live in swamps? How can we be sure they're not another harpies?”
It was up to me to decide: “Yes, let's not test our luck.” And we left them be, even though it meant eating insects for the foreseeable future. It was bad but I counted that the insects should last for more than a year. We could worry about food later.
We all were in a gloomy mood. One day as I was looking for Leperfish I found him in his workshop, chiseling something that looked like a coffin. “It's for CommaToes,” he explained. “We should show we won't ever forget about him.”
By this time, CommaToes was already allowed out of his bed and was able to work normally. But the infection didn't go away, and K0npeito said it was just a matter of time. His head and hands were covered with sores that would pop and ooze pus. “You shouldn't scratch it, you know,” we would say. “Stuff it,” he'd bark at us.
Leperfish's idea was actually a good way to show him we still cared about him. We hauled the coffin to the now fully furnished bedroom/hospital/my office and placed it in the middle. Six beds and one coffin. He would always stay with us.
Since CommaToes was our only soldier, it was essential that he would share his wisdom before his inevitable demise. It took a couple of days of persuasion but he eventually agreed he would teach Enzer, who proved to be a cold-blooded fighter, everything he knew about fighting and chopping legs. And so, as the summer was drawing close, we set up simple outdoor barracks and our first squad started training.
The last day of the spring was the day I was to realise why Leperfish was spending fewer and fewer time with me. It was early afternoon, everyone else was busy working, and I decided to seek shleter from the sun and mosquitoes in my office, where I would do some bookkeeping.
It was there where everything fell into place.
I saw something that should had staid unseen.
That mischievous woman! She stole my friend!